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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692315">I Know You Love Me (But Do You?)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetBunnii/pseuds/SweetBunnii'>SweetBunnii</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Robots &amp; Dogs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Artificial Intelligence, Author Projecting, BIG OOF, Jealousy, Non-binary character, Other, Robots, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, and then proceeded to name him after a .223 remington bc tony is bad at names, hanne doesnt show up until the end but theyre an important figure in remmie's life, i watched the transformers recently and i wanted a robot oc so i made one, projecting my horrendous feelings of envy and abandonment lmao, so here i am, through a robot ai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:35:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,632</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692315</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetBunnii/pseuds/SweetBunnii</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>| He doesn't hate Peter, he doesn't hate Tony, and he doesn't understand the envy skittering all throughout his framing. In an effort to keep Tony's happiness stable, he doesn't tell the man about it, about the bitterness in his chassis when he finds them cuddled up on the couch after a rough day or a lab day and watching Star Wars. He doesn't stop chattering with Peter kindly, because he still adores the boy, and he doesn't stop visiting Tony down in the lab on nights the man can't sleep, plagued with nightmares. |</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Remington (Remmie) Stark/Hanne Skovgaard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Robots &amp; Dogs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942384</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Know You Love Me (But Do You?)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>posting this on a whim cause it's been rough recently :)</p>
<p>decided to write about my dad's girlfriend and her kids and my unfortunate feelings towards them. i never had the best relationship with my dad, in short, he was very emotionally abusive towards myself, my brother, and my mom, and it's still a bit strained because of my transition. he's trying his best and it's nice, but because he's busy spending time with his "new family" i've been harbouring some negative feelings that i don't like. his girlfriend and her kids are very kind, but i still feel abandoned and replaced so :/</p>
<p>have a fic reflecting that i guess</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>          Emotion isn't something a person generally associates with artificial intelligence and robots. And well, while that isn't necessarily wrong in some cases, Remmie can't say the same for himself. The first emotion he'd ever feltㅡhe still remembers the exact day, too; October 7th, 2011, at exactly midnightㅡwas pure adoration and awe towards Tony. It truly felt as though Tony was a father to him, despite his demanding Remmie not see him that way at all, and especially not call him <em>dad</em>, God forbid. In all honestly, even before his ability to feel emotion, the day he'd first come online (March 22nd, 2010), Tony had immediately assumed the father position in his coding. Not that the man has ever really <em>been</em> fatherly, too afraid of becoming Howard and turning into something nasty. From that first feeling, Remmie had only progressed and evolved, coding and core becoming more complex than even JARVIS'.</p>
<p>Just as his structure and framing had upgraded. Tony loved nothing more than to tinker on him, fixing and adjusting and perfecting his artificial body nearly every day. He'd said it was because working on cars had grown boring and he occasionally needed a break from Stark Industries' R&amp;D projects, since he was still the head of that department after anointing Pepper as CEO. She was always better at the business side of things than him, with the impressive ability to get things done efficiently and effectively. And then, the Avengers had become a more urgent matter and Tony no longer had free time, busy building and creating new and fancy contraptions for teammates that gave him no thanks whatsoever. Remmie had stayed in the shadows, away from whatever that shit show was, because he didn't trust them and Tony didn't want them knowing about him. Because he was Tony's secret, built when the man was tipsy and halfway to his deathbed from Palladium decay-product poisoningㅡthat is, over-exposure to Silver and Rhodium internally (the Arc Reactor had been relying on a Pd-103/Pd-107 radio-isotopic decay cell to produce electrical current, before Tony replaced the Palladium with the new element and solved the issue that arose from that kind of reaction).</p>
<p>So he'd stayed away from the Avengers for six years, stayed back and monitored Tony with JARVIS, and eventually FRIDAY, whenever they were called out to missions. By then, his emotional capacity had greatly increased and he wasn't surprised by the amount of concern he'd been feeling each time Tony would get a little too close to death for comfort. When Vision had returned to the Compound with Tony's limp body, bruised and bloody and damaged, Remmie had been so panicked his systems had forced a shut-down. Of course, Vision never saw him, for he'd been holed up in the penthouse safely and monitoring Tony through his optics. The man, who had been so much like a father for the past six years, was closer to his deathbed than he had been with the Ten Rings, the poisoning, the Nuke, and Ultron's mess. FRIDAY's attempted, confused reassurances hadn't done much to help calm him.</p>
<p>It was only when Tony awoke, albeit bleary and hardly conscious, that Remmie's core settled and stopped rattling around in his chassis. He remembers staying unmoving from his bedside for the entire month that Tony had been incapacitated, refusing any and all entry from the remaining Avengers (really, only Rhodes, Vision, and Peter) and Pepper and ignoring the questions that followed said actions thereafter. It was selfish of him, he knows that, but he was unable to control himself at that point, merely driven by unbearable fear. Maybe two months after <em>that</em>, after three reconstructive surgeries and an artificial sternum replacement, much sturdier than the last, was when Peter became a larger figure in Tony's life. He reminds Remmie of an over-excited puppy, yapping away at every chance he gets, adorably so. It's only when Peter starts calling Tony dad a year later, and Tony <em>allowing</em> it with plenty of terrified enthusiasm, that Remmie feels something stabbing in his core.</p>
<p>None of it is pleasant, heavy and restricting and heart-splitting despite not having an actual heart. He doesn't hate Peter, he doesn't hate Tony, and he doesn't understand the <em>envy</em> skittering all throughout his framing. In an effort to keep Tony's happiness <em>stable</em>, he doesn't tell the man about it, about the bitterness in his chassis when he finds them cuddled up on the couch after a rough day or a lab day and watching Star Wars. He doesn't stop chattering with Peter kindly, because he still adores the boy, and he doesn't stop visiting Tony down in the lab on nights the man can't sleep, plagued with nightmares. Remmie pushes the green to the side, and it <em>festers</em>, it grows and grows, until even simply watching Peter <em>smile</em> at Tony hurts like nothing before. It makes him wonder if Tony is relieved to have a human child to interact with for once, instead of a robot.</p>
<p>Remmie realizes, with a stabbing pain, that he'd considered himself fifteen when he first came online. Peter's fifteen, and now he'd be twenty-three, and if that doesn't <em>hurt</em>. With rotten disgust at himself for even considering this thought, it feels like Tony's replacing him eight years after creating him. That's not the case, he <em>knows</em> that's not it, but God, if it doesn't feel like that. A trembling ripples through Remmie's grey fingers, nano-bytes shuddering gently with his depressing thoughts. Stepping into the threshold of the common room feels like stepping onto a battlefield when he sees Peter and Tony curled up on the sectional, Star Wars playing quietly in the background with the lights dimmed. He immediately dismisses all of his original plans to tell Tony that Hanne is able to come over tomorrow so they can finally, officially meet. Movie nights mean Peter staying the night and early lab days, filled with wandering the floors of Stark Tower.</p>
<p>Remmie tightens his grip on the hem of his sweaterㅡTony's SI hoodieㅡbefore dropping them and silently shuffling over to grab the blanket on the loveseat. Peter's fast asleep, looking innocent and childish as ever, and it makes Remmie resent himself for being so jealous of this sweet boy. He carefully lays the blanket over the two of them and unnoticingly eyes the rough, overworked fingers brushing through soft brown curls.</p>
<p>"He's good for you," Remmie says quietly, swallowing his envy reluctantly.</p>
<p>"He is. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but I'm happy. He's happy," Tony mumbles, smiling down at the kid.</p>
<p>Something stabs the robot right in the core, sharp and unforgiving. He stands straight again after smoothing the blanket out.</p>
<p>"I always knew you'd be a good father, Tony." <em>Because you were already one to me</em>, goes unspoken, unheard in the echoing silence.</p>
<p>"Want to join us?" Tony offers, looking awkward, "I know Star Wars isn't your thing, but you could add to the cuddle pile."</p>
<p><em>And make things more uncomfortable with my inhuman, metal body?</em> Remmie thinks bitterly, a sour taste in his modulator beneath his faceplate.</p>
<p>"That's okay. I, um, I only came down to tell you I'll be at Hanne's for a few days," he says instead.</p>
<p>That's a lie, but Tony doesn't need to know.</p>
<p>"Okay." Tony removes his fingers from Peter's unruly hair to grasp Remmie's hand gently and thump at the seamless plating. "You know I'm not trying to replace you, right, Rem?"</p>
<p>It doesn't really feel like that. It feels like he was replaced the moment Tony met Peter. He doesn't let Tony in on that secret thought. The man doesn't need to know, he shouldn't have to deal with the robot's emotional problems when he already has enough of his own on his plate. Remmie shouldn't even <em>have</em> problems. He's a <em>robot</em>.</p>
<p>"I know," he lies, haptic sensors thrumming at the warmth in Tony's touch.</p>
<p>"Good. Have fun with your partner," the man whispers, smiling.</p>
<p>The smile doesn't feel real, but maybe that's himself saying that. Maybe it is a real smile. Remmie nods, slinks away from Tony's grip, and returns to the awaiting elevator. FRIDAY closes the doors behind him and waits patiently for him to tell her where he wants to go. He tucks himself into the corner, grappling onto the hem of his sweater again, until the trembling in his fingers subdues a bit. A broken noise falls from his modulator, hurt and every bit sad. His core aches and shudders in his framing, another noise pulled from the depths of it. He feels suspiciously like the next few days at Hanne's apartment are going to be him moping around because <em>Tony doesn't love him</em> (his coding supplies mockingly). The thought hurts.</p>
<p>Remmie dials Hanne from his optics, not up to pulling his phone out when his hands are trembling so bad it's travelled up to his shoulders. It rings twice before there's an answer, voice silky and soothing through the bluetooth in his helm. The Dane does wonders to calm him.</p>
<p>"Hello, sweet thing," Hanne greets, accent faint.</p>
<p>"Can we cancel you meeting Tony until the next century, and I come to you instead," Remmie mutters shakily.</p>
<p>"Did something happen?" Hanne's voice straightens, concern lacing it.</p>
<p>"N-No, just, um.." Remmie laughs, mixed in with a humiliating sob. "Just me being unrightfully green towards Peter."</p>
<p>"Okay. Okay, baby. We can postpone, I don't mind," the Dane says softly, and Remmie can't help making another wounded noise, "did you want to talk about it?"</p>
<p>"Iㅡn-not really, not here, anyway. I, um, can I just come over and talk there?"</p>
<p>"Of course, baby. Do you needㅡdo you want me to pick you up?"</p>
<p>"Please," the robot whimpers.</p>
<p>"Alright. I'll be right over. You gather anything you need, sweet thing."</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>while not super prominent in the fic, the information i got on the arc reactor was from this site: https://gizmodo.com/how-iron-mans-arc-reactor-probably-works-1661613682</p>
<p>very insightful for someone who knows jack shit about science.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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